


dared to call you

by braigwen_s



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Found Family, Gen, Hugs, Maybe The Real General Hugs Was The Leia We Found Along The Way, Pre-TFA, Space Mom Leia Organa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-07
Updated: 2021-01-07
Packaged: 2021-03-17 18:54:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28604784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/braigwen_s/pseuds/braigwen_s
Relationships: Poe Dameron & Leia Organa
Comments: 6
Kudos: 10





	dared to call you

**Author's Note:**

  * For [rosesmallow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosesmallow/gifts).



“Poe,” said the General. Poe stopped in his tracks on the way through the hangar, cleaning rag in his belt; turned around and looked back at her.

“Yes, General?” he asked.

She frowned at him for a minute, then opened her arms up. “Oh, c’m’ere.”

Poe obeyed, disbelieving, and felt himself be hugged. The General was a shorter woman, and, belatedly, he leaned over so that she wasn’t reaching up. The hug was tight and warm. Slowly, he dared to shift his own arms around her, too, but he had only just done so when she let go. All of a sudden, he felt bereft, missing something that he had never known he had needed. “You’re a good kid,” she said.

He tilted his head around, looking for cameras or witnesses. This all felt like it was out of nowhere, and, even worse, it felt like any minute he would wake up and have to drag himself back to the real galaxy. He considered saying something about not really being a kid, but that seemed like it would be disrespectful. He didn’t mean to say what he did, but it just sort of … slipped through between his lips like they were the bars of a cell and ran for it. “I wouldn’t say I’m really _good_ , General. Not in a moral sense, at least, although I will admit I am a fantastic pilot.”

The General rolled her eyes to the ceiling, then waved one hand impatiently. “Oh, nobody good thinks that they’re good,” she said. “That wasn’t even what I meant.”

“What did you mean?” he asked. His voice was quiet, and he hadn’t tacked ‘General’ or ‘Ma’am’ onto the end of his question. The empty, dirty hangar suddenly felt like it was cradling something sacred, like it was the temple Yavin once had been, hundreds and thousands of years ago.

“I mean that I care about you, Poe,” she said.

He stared at her. “...As a pilot, right,” he croaked out, after a long moment filled with rippling pressure against his chest, against his brain.

She shook her head. “You _know_ ,” she said. “Stop trying to kid yourself.”

Now that she had told him that he should let himself know what he knew… Oh. Oh. He did; he did know. It was like… he knew the name; he recalled it. The child who had gone missing, one day, and the Jedi were killed again. Ben. “As a son,” he whispered, his throat scraping.

There were faint ringlets of hair that had escaped from the General’s tight bun, curling in front of both of her ears. There was a holo Poe had seen once, of Shara Bey, his mother, with her hair doing the same, only thicker and curlier and black instead of greying brown. The General smiled, and it felt wrong, not like bad, it wasn’t bad at all it was …. it was nice, or good even… but it just didn’t… feel like the way the universe was meant to work. But, then again, the General didn’t need to obey how the universe was supposed to work. The universe should always be bending to her wishes. She tapped her nose, and smiled at him. “That’s the one,” she said, then added “son”.

There was a heavy, heavy weight to the word "son," how she said it. An almost unbearable heaviness, like the entire Galaxy, like guilt and loss and wish and hope and love. Poe stepped up; he would help her carry it. He bent to her (wishes), and hugged her again, this time of his volition. He tried to channel into the embrace what he couldn’t string into a phrase. Or that he couldn’t say out loud.

He was pretty sure that it worked.


End file.
